Well, people come armed with Winnie-the-Poohs. They're going to throw them regardless. It has nothing to do with whether *this* particular performance was good or not.
I think that there is anither way to look at it. People say (even on this thread), that what fans really like is lots of big jumps. The evidence for this is that every time a skater jumps the audience applauds. Therefore, if the ISU knows which side their bread is buttered on, they will manipulate the rules to encourage miore jumping.
Others point out, no, audiences also applaud for vigorous step sequences and fast spins. Therefore, if the ISU knows which side their bread is buttered on, they will up the ante on steps and spins.
Ah, no, the biggest applause is reserved for the program as a whole, so that proves that the ISU should raise PCS factors from 100 to 120.
Alternatively an observer/fan might insist that the ISU is not interested in bread and butter, but rather the purity of the (current version) of the scoring conventions -- who skated the best according to the rules in place -- and the fans can like it or lump it.
Other sports face the same questions. In basketball somebody (namely the ABA, a start-up league in the 1960s that aspired to steal some of the NBA's thunder) figured that what fans really wanted was players shoooting the ball from "downtown" -- they came up with the three-point shot. The ABA folded after a coule of seasons, but the NBA said, hey, the red-white-and-blue basketball was a silly gimmick, but this three-pointer idea is a good one.
Now many serious basketball aficionados are having second thoughts, griping that three-pointers have destroyed the finesse of true basketball. Who wants to watch a bunch of yahoos casting off from 30 feet on every possession instead of running actual plays.
In baseball, every season the MLB bomchos get together to decide whaether the fans want to see nail-biting pitchers' duals (if so, they instruct the umpires to call a wider strike zone) or would the fans rather see big home runs (in which case the umpires are instructed to call a narrower strike zone). The palyers easily adjust and there is no plroblem because eveybody plays by the same rules that season, whatever they are.
As for Winnie-the-Poohs, the fans can either donate them to the local children's hospitial or they can whoop it up with fellow revellers at the ice show first, and then leave it up to Mr. Hanyu to handle the details of delivering the toys to the hospital. It's all good. No, this doesn;t prove that Hanyu skated especially well this time out, but, if the ISU knows whaich side their bread is buttered on, all those Pooh-bearers bought tickets to the show, so...
let's increase that spin value.
) There isanother video that does not seem to be available on You Tube any more that shows the closing seconds from behind the skater, with the audience before her. As she lifts her arms like a symphony conductor the audience rises as one before her. 
